Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables

Several weekends ago, when I asked Yuriy what should we prepare for dinner, I got an answer – lasagna, and I was intimidated a bit – I never prepared lasagna before. So I spent some time in internet researching recipes and found several I liked. I’ve combined them, added some touch to my taste and prepared this lasagna.

This was my first attempt to make lasagna. And main challenge for me was to properly prepare noodles: according to the instructions on the pack they required boiling before using. I’ve added 2 tablespoons of oil to the boiling water and was boiling them layer by layer and it totally helped to prevent noodles from sticking while boiling.

This lasagna turned out perfectly: balanced combination of meat and vegetables (just how I like it), noodles were very tender, it was totally worth all the time I’ve spend boiling them, getting out of water and trying arrange them in the pan.

How to prepare, step-by-step:

Prepare ingredients: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 1

Start by preparing meat and vegetable sauce. Bring a pot of water to boil, cut each tomato’s skin cross-like and put them to the boiling water for 15-20 seconds. Then drain water and set them aside to cool down: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 2

Peel and dice onion and all garlic. Warm big skillet with about 2 table spoons of vegetable oil (I usually take olive oil or sunflower one) over moderate heat. Move diced onions and garlic to the skillet and fry them until soft stirring from time to time (about 10-15 mins): Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 3

Skin carrots and shred them on big slots of the grater, add carrots to the skillet, mix and fry for 7-10 mins: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 4

Add ground beef to the skillet, separate in into small pieces with the spatula: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 5

Mix beef with carrots, garlic and onions and let it cook until ready, for about 20-25 mins, stir occasionally: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 6

Add diced celery: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 7

Clean and dice bell pepper and add it to the skillet: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 8

Mix everything: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 9

Cut each tomato, you boiled before, in half and remove hard stem parts, remove skin. Chop tomatoes finely in blender and pour them to the skillet: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 10

Then add all milk in slow stream (remember to stir!): Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 16

Continue stirring and cooking sauce until it becomes thick. Then remove it from the burner, it is ready: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 17

Now it is time to assemble lasagna. Read carefully instruction of your lasagna noodles: some of them require pre-boiling, others may be used dry. If they require boiling, bring a big pot of water to boiling and add about 2 table spoons (that will help noodles to not stick together). I usually have 4 layers of noodles with 3 layers of meat and vegetable sauce in between; put portion of noodles (for one layer) to be water and boil for amount of time indicated in the instructions: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 18

Carefully take cooked noodles out of water; they will be hot – rinse them with cold water, so they cool down a bit: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 19

Arrange noodles on the bottom of the baking pan into one layer: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 20

So put about 1/3 of the meat sauce over noodles in even layer: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 21

Cover it with 1/4 of white bechamel sauce: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 22

Repeat with the rest of ingredients: layer of noodles, then layer of meat and vegetable sauce, then layer of white bechamel sauce and layer of cheese for 2 more times. Then cover with the final layer of noodles: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 24

Spread the rest of the white bechamel sauce (you should have left about ¼ of all amount). Put lasagna to the oven preheated to 355F for 40-45 mins: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 25

Then take baking pan from the oven, cover lasagna with a layer of shredded parmesan and put back to the oven for 10 mins more. Then take from the oven and set it aside for 10-15 mins before serving: Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables Recipe: Step 26

Lasagna can be served freshly prepared out of oven or it can be stored in fridge and reheated in microwave (this way it is much easier to cut it into portion pieces): Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables

Reading different recipes on internet, including my favorite sites, I would like to say that this recipe is the best in different ways. –It is much more detailed. –There are more different vegetables used and all of them not canned, but fresh. — There is bigger amount of meat used and it makes lasagna more tasty. This recipe could take less time, if spend less time for stewing, which I did and it’s fine. It’s complicated and time spending, but tasty meal. Thank you very much for your wonderful site.

I am trying to work more vegetables into our diet and this was a perfect choice. I enjoyed it just as posted except I forgot to add parsley (I only have the dried kind). It was a touch bland in flavor, but I add more salt and pepper and it was very good. Thinking that maybe next time try other veggies and add a few more spices. Fantastic sauce. Thank you for sharing.

Hi Julia, looks like a great recipe! I’m doing dinner for my aunts’ and mother’s birthday tomorrow night (they’re triplets!) and I’m just curious how many you think this recipe feeds? I’ll be cooking for the triplets, my grandmother and myself as well as my father and 2 male cousins who all eat like men, so do you think this would be enough? Thanks 🙂